HELLRAISER

Frank (Sean Chapman), an unscrupulous man constantly seeking new and perverse sexual practices, purchases the Lament Configuration, a cubic puzzle, in a bazaar in an unidentified third-world country. According to legend, solving it would grant the desire to experience the pleasures of the flesh beyond the limits of human knowledge. The man returns to his home in England and solves the puzzle, eager to experience new sexual encounters; but from it emerge the Cenobites or "Sufferers," ruthless demons from a parallel infernal dimension led by the dark Pinhead. Frank discovers at his own expense that pleasure, once it crosses the threshold of earthly tolerance, becomes pure and excruciating psychophysical pain. He ends up flayed alive and his soul is imprisoned in the Cenobitic existential plane, condemned to an eternity of "delightful" torture. Years later, Larry (Andrew Robinson), a devoted and exemplary husband, moves into his missing brother's house with his daughter Kirsty and his second wife Julia (who had frequently betrayed him in secret with Frank and had become enslaved to his sadomasochistic and intense sexual practices). One evening, a few drops of Larry's blood, from an accidental hand wound, summon back the soul of the missing relative, who materializes as a skeleton with internal organs and some muscle. To fully reform and definitively escape the torture of the Sufferers, Frank needs more blood. He thus decides to use the perverse and submissive Julia, who eventually, after a series of random victims chosen from bars, offers him his own naive brother. Frank thus reincarnates completely using the poor Larry's skin as an "external shell." His attention then turns toward his young niece. But fortunately for her, Kirsty discovers the mystery of the cubic puzzle and decides to use the Sufferers and the charismatic Pinhead to avenge her beloved father's murder... Will she succeed? The film written and directed by Clive Barker, despite its extremely low budget, conveys on screen in an incisive manner the claustrophobic atmosphere of the story (for more information see the article "All About Hellraiser" in the "Special Features" section). The enormous success achieved in theaters will create a film genre and a series of merchandise and comics concerning the Cenobitic universe of the Sufferers. Best viewed in the uncut version, which adds more pathos and new splatter scenes.